Land records do not always get recorded promptly and are usually recorded in the record books in the order in which they are brought to the courthouse. Generally most land deeds are recorded relatively promptly. There are always exceptions and the oversight is usually noticed when the property is eventually sold. As a result a deed from the 1820s could be recorded in the 1850s, perhaps when the purchaser died. Sometimes the buyer forgets to record the deed initially only to find it stuck in a safe place decades later.
If your landowning ancestor has no probate, consider the following: the land was sold before the death–check land records the land was transferred after the death by the family without court action–check land records there was a partition suit–check non-probate court land records nothing was done until the surviving spouse died–check land records there was no land–check property tax records to confirm this Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
There’s a difference between nicknames and diminutives. Diminutives are variations on a name that are based upon the sounds in that name. Bill, Billy, Will, etc. are diminutives for William. Calling the same person “Red” because his hair is read is using a nickname. Calling him “hotheaded Bill” is technically both Using the name Kate, Kat, or Kathy in reference to someone named Katherine is also using a diminutive. Referring to my low-German ancestor Trientje by the name Katherine is not using a nickname or a diminutive. In this case it is a anglicization (translation into English) of the name Trientje. Your non-English speaking ancestors “new names” may not have been nicknames or diminutives at all–they could have been translations of their actual name.
While practices can vary, property leases are typically not recorded. Copies of the lease are kept by all parties involved, but usually the only time a lease could be “recorded” if there is an issue with the lease itself, some disagreement involving the lease, or if the terms of the lease are unexpired at the death of one of the parties involved. One ancestor was renting property when he died in Illinois in 1877 and that agreement was included as evidence in his estate settlement. In another case there was a disagreement over the terms and the lease was recorded as evidence. Usually if there are no “issues” with a lease, there’s no reason to have it recorded. And…in these cases the agreement was not really “recorded” like […]
Someone who “made their mark” on a document” may or may not have been illiterate. There was a time where “making your mark” was equivalent to signing (as long as there were witnesses) and others may have been in a physical state where they could not actually sign. In older record books the “signature” (mark or not) is actually the clerk’s handwritten transcription of that signature or mark. Sometimes if the mark was not an “x” the clerk would try to replicate it as best he could. In the illustration, it appears that the clerk is trying to reproduce an “R” made by Peter Rucker of Orange County, Virginia.
Most US county recorder’s offices have a “miscellaneous” record where a variety of documents have been officially recorded. Usually what is in those volumes can vary, but I’ve seen copies of out-of-state divorce decrees, out-of-county death certificates, medical licenses, etc. It may be worth a look to see what is available. And while you are there don’t forget to ask about soldier’s discharge records. Many counties made official record copies of soldier’s discharge paperwork in case the soldier ever lost his papers.
We will be discussing this in a future post, but I could not resist sharing this 1803 plot of a parcel of property surveyed for Thomas Sledd in Amherst County, Virginia. It was surveyed a few years before he left for Kentucky. These old drawings are wonderful. They are land records, but sometimes these survey plots are recorded in a separate series of books.
City directories may contain list of abbreviations in the prefatory material. Do not just look for your relative’s name and quit.Those lists may include name of local employers that were easier to abbreviate than print over and over. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
If your ancestor obtained a United States military warrant which was used to acquire property in the federal domain, consider obtaining a copy of the application for the warrant. These applications are housed at the National Archives and should contain documentation of a soldier’s service. If the widow applied for a warrant after the soldier’s death she would have needed to prove her marriage also. Copies of the warrant applications can be requested through the National Archives. They are not online.
It can be hard to get transcription and writing variants on a new family where you have not located records before. To get ideas of potential handwriting variants and transcription mistakes, consider writing the name in a sloppy fashion and having someone else who does not know what the name is read it. This may give you some variations you had not thought to look for.
Many Americans obtained federal land, either through military warrants, homesteading, outright purchase, or several less-popular options. Federal land patents can be searched at the Bureau of Land Management website. The records documenting the acquisition are at the National Archives. The amount of genealogical detail in those records can vary, but cash land sales generally yield little in the way of additional information. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
In areas where real property is described in deeds using the metes and bounds, make certain you read that legal description of the property. While it may be tempting to gloss over the angles and lengths, the names of adjacent property owners could be helpful.
Never assume that your ancestor wouldn’t have attended “that church” because it was the “wrong” denomination. It is possible that your knowledge of your ancestor’s religion is not as accurate as you think it is or that the lack of a preacher of the right denomination caused someone to be married by a preacher who was “close enough.” In frontier times, people sometimes had to attend services of whatever what close–as long as the beliefs were relatively similar.
In Ancestry.com‘s “1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta,” the age of William H. Sartorius is transcribed as “88” instead of “38.” That’s enough of a difference that using any age or year of birth for him relatively close to the right one won’t find him. Consider removing any age-related information from your search and using other search terms instead.
There is still time to sign up. Please let me know if you signed up and did not receive your registration information. We are again offering my popular “Organizing Genealogy Information” class this June–starting later in the month. Additional details are contained in our blog post.
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